In Rocklands, Liezille Jacobs reframes psychology not only as a profession, but as a profound calling that is intertwined with personal and societal evolution. Traversing her own personal journey from her adverse childhood experiences in Rocklands, Mitchell’s Plain, to being the first black Head of Department at Rhodes University in 120 years, Jacobs illuminates the interconnectedness of personal, professional and public roles, advocating for a shift from careerism to a movement grounded in shared values and principles.

At the same time, the book makes a brave and erudite scholarly contribution to the field of psychology. Its method is unconventional but carefully considered. Those who have provided comments on the manuscript unanimously concur – this book is essential reading for students and academics, families and patriarchs in equal measure.

The transformation imperative within psychology demands a stance of activism, if not revolution, against systems of oppression. This stance urges readers to view this book not only as an academic exercise but as a profound transformative exploration of “giving psychology away”; emphasising the idea of making psychological knowledge and expertise more accessible to the general public and sharing the benefits of psychological science with society to improve people’s lives.

Beyond Diplomacy covers nearly six decades of Riaan “Koedoe” Eksteen's eventful career — from being South Africa's youngest ambassador at the time, taking the helm and transforming broadcasting in South Africa, to being closely involved in Namibia's pre- and post-independence.

Events and altercations that have never before been aired or documented are now put in a new context. For example, what exactly was said in the evening calls when P.W. Botha fired Eksteen as head of the SABC and all that happened after this. His experiences and involvement in South Africa's diplomacy stretched over a period of 27 years starting way back when Verwoerd was prime minister.

During his extraordinary career he served as ambassador under John Vorster, P.W. Botha, F.W. de Klerk and Nelson Mandela.

Bart, die aantreklikste ou in haar matriekklas, soen Esli uit haar vel. Vir meer as veertig jaar deel hulle hul lewens, maak saam kinders groot en sien om na vriende en familie. Jaarliks vier hulle Kersfees in Kleinmond met geskenke en trifle en stappies langs die see met hul worshond.

Maar hoekom val Bart se broer uit ’n boom voor Esli se ouerhuis? En watter donker geheim is onderliggend aan Bart se ma se vreemde gedrag en onfatsoenlike grappe? Wat dink kollegas van Esli se haarstyleksperimente en panda-oë? Verdien sy om in die spaarkamer te skuil omdat sy, volgens Bart, aand na aand die kos brand en die hond se pote laat nat word as dit reën?

In So Lyk ’n Vrou vertel Ilse Verster van Esli se heelwording en hoe sy, ná ’n leeftyd van mishandeling, in ’n rooi rok op die strand kon staan met een vuis in die lug en vry kon voel. Sy gee stem aan ’n stukkende vrou wat net wil hê die pyn moet stop. Sy deel wat dit verg om jou teen die muur op te trek, jou teen die samelewing te handhaaf en jouself te red.

Paris, 1958. A skirmish in a world-famous restaurant leaves two men dead and the restaurant staff baffled. Why did the head waiter, a man who’s been living in France for many years, lunge at his patrons with a knife?

As the man awaits trial, a journalist hounds his long-time friend, hoping to expose the true story behind this unprecedented act of violence.

Gradually, the extraordinary story of Pitso Motaung, a young South African who volunteered to serve with the Allies in the First World War, emerges. Through a tragic twist of fate, Pitso found himself on board the ss Mendi, a ship that sank off the Isle of Wight in February 1917. More than six hundred of his countrymen, mostly black soldiers, lost their lives in a catastrophe that official history largely forgot. One particularly cruel moment from that day will remain etched in Pitso’s mind, resurfacing decades later to devastating effect.

Dancing The Death Drill recounts the life of Pitso Motaung. It is a personal and political tale that spans continents and generations, moving from the battlefields of the Boer War to the front lines in France and beyond. With a captivating blend of pathos and humour, Fred Khumalo brings to life a historical event, honouring both those who perished in the disaster and those who survived.

Wat is vir jou uniek en kosbaar aan Suid-Afrika? Wat laat jou verlang? Wat laat jou lag? Wat maak jou trots? Is dit ’n spesifieke landskap, landmerk, kos, dier, plant, liedjie of tradisie? Vir elkeen is dit iets anders.

In hierdie bundel beskryf verskeie skrywers, kunstenaars en ander bekendes wat vir hulle besonders is aan Suid-Afrika. Die bundel bestaan uit kort sketse (1000 woorde of minder) en enkele gedigte. ’n Verskeidenheid van perspektiewe op wat belangrik en spesiaal aan Suid-Afrika is, word van mense van verskillende ouderdomme en agtergronde gegee.

Dit sluit nostalgiese herinneringe uit die verlede, reisbeskrywings, ’n komiese bespreking van die ikoniese Suid-Afrikaanse melktert, ’n essay oor die merkwaardige fossielvondste van die land, en nog vele meer, in.

Internationally-renowned historian Hermann Giliomee has himself been intimately involved in the unfolding drama of South Africa’s history, as participant at the Dakar talks with the ANC, as outspoken commentator for the English press, and as leading thinker on the Afrikaners. Giliomee’s lucidity and original insights make this more than just his own story. It is also a gripping narrative, filled with anecdotes and revealing inner workings of the Afrikaner establishment.

Although Olga Kirsch’s is the only Jewish voice in Afrikaans poetry, it is scarcely known among members of the South African Jewish community. Olga Kirsch was, after Elisabeth Eybers, only the second woman to publish a collection of poetry in Afrikaans.

The aims of this biography are to reverse this slide into obscurity and to show why her work is important not only in South Africa but also in Israel.

It does not only investigate Kirsch’s role as Afrikaans Jewish poet but also examines her as an example of a cross-cultural, multi-lingual immigrant poet. As such some of her English and Hebrew poetry are included in this work.

When Love Kills is the tale of hip hop star, AKA. whose life unravelled when he embarked on a relationship with 21 year-old Anele Tembe.

When she "fell" to her death from the 10th storey of the Pepper Club in April, 2021, after a long night of heated arguing, details would emerge that they'd been caught up in a whirlwind of toxic obsession, alleged substance abuse and violence. Less then two years later AKA was assassinated in what looked like a hit to avenge her death.

This is their tragic story.

Helen Zille’s long-awaited autobiography is one of the most fascinating political stories of our time.

Zille takes the reader back to her humble family origins, her struggle with anorexia as a young woman, her early career as a journalist for the Rand Daily Mail, and her involvement with the End Conscription Campaign and the Black Sash. She documents her early days in the Democratic Party and the Democratic Alliance, at a time when the party was locked in a no-holds-barred factional conflict. And she chronicles the intense political battles to become mayor of Cape Town, leader of the DA and premier of the Western Cape, in the face of dirty tricks from the ANC and infighting within her own party.

This is a story about political intrigue and treachery, floor-crossing and unlikely coalitions, phone tapping and intimidation, false criminal charges and judicial commissions. It documents Zille’s courageous fight against corruption and state capture and her efforts to realign politics and entrench accountability. And it describes a mother’s battle to raise children in the pressured world of South African politics.

This book is as frank, honest and unflinching as Helen Zille herself, and will appeal to anyone interested in the story of South African politics over the past fifty years.

Emma van der Walt is ’n pastor, ’n ma en eggenoot, en ’n vrou met ’n hart vir God. Sy is ook die vreeslose stigter van die niewinsgewende organisasie, Brave to love.

Daagliks betree hulle die donker wêreld van die seksbedryf en mensehandel om jong vroue uit die kloue van euwel te red. Hierdie meisies word dan met liefde en leiding ’n nuwe begin gebied.

Emma en haar span werk sy-aan-sy met plaaslike en internasionale wetgewende instansies. Saam beveg hulle mensehandel en slawerny en vlek die korrupsie en ontsaglike lyding wat agter toe deure plaasvind, oop.

Hierdie is haar storie en die skokkende verhale van die gelukkiges wat gered kon word om die hel van mensehandel te oorleef.

Willem Pretorius is een van ons voorste skilders wat die Suid-Afrikaanse platteland vasvat met soortgelyke patos as Walter Meyer, aan wie alle skilders in hierdie genre hulde bring. Sy skilderye is amper foto-realisties maar inspireer tog ʼn sekere gevoel van nostalgie na ʼn verlore onskuld, na die sogenaamde goeie ou dae wat nie vir almal goed was nie. Daar is ook ʼn afstandelikheid, ʼn gebrek aan kommentaar: Die landskap spreek vir homself.

Die boek bevat kleurafdrukke, professioneel gefotografeer, van sy 50 jongste werke, ʼn goeie mengsel van sy gebruiklike onderwerpe: huise, treine, versaakte swembaddens, landskappe, ou karre en gekrokte bakkies, plattelandse winkels, huise en dorpstonele, ensovoorts.

Elke skildery is begelei deur ʼn skryfsel van ʼn bekende skrywer, musikant, digter of skilder. Dis nie ʼn beskrywing of tegniese ontleding van die skildery nie, eerder vry assosiasie, ʼn kort kortverhaal, ʼn herinneringskets. Elk is ongeveer 500 woorde en beslaan dus nie meer as een bladsy nie; die bladsy langs die skildery wat dit geïnspireer het.

Their love story was one of the greatest of our times.

Ruth Williams was a middle-class Londoner who loved ballroom dancing and ice skating when she met Seretse Khama. He was chief designate of the most powerful tribe in Bechuanaland, today Botswana, on the borders of apartheid South Africa. Their union sparked outrage, fear and anger. Ruth’s father barred her from their family home, she was hounded by the global media and shunned by white people in Seretse’s village of Serowe. The couple was humiliated, tricked and eventually exiled to England. But, despite all these tribulations, their love triumphed over the politics and prejudice of the time.

This is the story Ruth Khama told well-known journalist and author Sue Grant-Marshall ‒ the story of an extraordinary woman, who had the courage of her convictions in marrying the man she loved and accepting his country and people as her own.

Robert Schapiro always wanted to fly. Challenging anti-Semitic bullying, mockery and fierce rivalry, he realised his dream by earning his wings in the South African Air Force and going on to command C-47 Dakotas in the Border War.

He joined South African Airways (SAA) in 1979, soon learning it was a time when SAA crews were dominated by the ‘Royal Family’ – captains who thought themselves above the rules and who spent time overseas on drinking binges or coaxing air hostesses to be their ‘airline wives’.

When sanctions forced SAA to cut back on its routes, he was seconded to Japan’s Nippon Cargo Airlines, routinely flying between New York and Tokyo, and grappling with often-hilarious cultural misunderstandings as he adapted to a Japanese style of operations.

Schapiro is disarmingly frank about life as an international pilot. He divulges near misses, emergency landings, navigation errors, passenger shenanigans (seat sex, anyone?), how pilots control rowdy travellers and absorbing detail about the technique of flying different aircraft types. Uplifting and humorous, his memoir offers a rare slice of aviation history.

The first ever memoirs from the Number One global bestselling adventure author.

Wilbur Smith has lived an incredible life of adventure, and now he shares the extraordinary true stories that have inspired his fiction. From being attacked by lions to close encounters with deadly reef sharks, from getting lost in the African bush without water to crawling the precarious tunnels of gold mines, from marlin fishing with Lee Marvin to near death from crash-landing a Cessna airplane, from brutal school days to redemption through writing and falling in love, Wilbur Smith tells us the intimate stories of his life that have been the raw material for his fiction.

Always candid, sometimes hilarious, and never less than thrillingly entertaining, On Leopard Rock is testament to a writer whose life is as rich and eventful as his novels are compellingly unputdownable.

From former MK soldier Sandi Sijake comes a unique and revelatory memoir of the incredible and largely untold story of the beginnings of uMkhonto weSizwe and the early Pan-African and Soviet efforts to arm and train the new freedom army.

From Sudan to Egypt, from Tanganyika to Tashkent, Sijake’s extraordinary recall takes the reader on a gripping journey and a moving reflection on his burning desire to fight for freedom. Equally absorbing Sijake’s account of his time on Robben Island, the personalities from the different liberation groups, early moves towards negotiations and an account of daily life on the Island.

Born in 1945 in the Eastern Cape, Sandi Sijake joined the ANC in 1959 and left for exile in 1963. Captured in 1972, Sijake was sentenced in 1973 to 15 years and sent to Robben Island. Released in 1988, Sijake joined the SANDF in 1995, and in 2009 he was elected president of the ANC Veteran’s League.

"Why walk when you can soar..."

These are the opening words on Tracy Todd’s website and they are a powerful affirmation of the person Tracy is today – a sought-after inspirational speaker whose uplifting presentations have inspired and given hope to many people. But it is difficult to imagine what she has overcome in a tough and often lonely journey.

At the age of twenty-eight her life was turned upside down when a horrific road accident left her a quadriplegic, paralysed from the neck down. Her life as an athletic, marathon-running young mother and teacher was abruptly shattered. Despite months of rehabilitation, Tracy often found herself wondering if her life was worth living. Everything she had taken for granted was now beyond her reach and frustration at her helplessness threatened to overwhelm her. Against the odds, Tracy chose to live.

Her strength of character and determination prevailed and, sustained by the support of her son, family and friends, her care assistants, and an unbelievably caring community, she set about gaining the independence to rebuild her life and reclaim her identity – which she has done, with dignity and grace. Brave Lotus Flower Rides The Dragon is an honest, inspiring and engaging memoir in which Tracy’s natural warmth and humour are tangible and, most importantly, she embodies what the human spirit can achieve.

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the NSRI, here is a collection of daring rescues filled with drama and danger. From burning ships to shark attacks, sinking trawlers to hallucinating fishermen, these are the stories of man’s constant battle with some of the most dangerous waters on earth. But there is one story in particular that gave rise to the creation of the NSRI...

On 12 April 1966, four fishing boats put out to sea from Stilbaai on South Africa’s southern coast. Soon they were all pulling in fish as fast as they could bait their hooks, and the boats were settling lower in the water. Shortly before sunset, skipper Gerhard Dreyer saw clouds building on the horizon. But the fishing was too good and they ignored the signs. Later that night a gale force wind slammed into them. ‘I told the men to throw everything overboard,’ Gerhard remembers. An hour before midnight, Gerhard headed for deeper water to try and ride out the swells. As dawn broke, they saw for the first time the true extent of the night’s damage: among the flotsam, one man in a lifebuoy. That man was the only crewman from the other three boats to survive the terrible storm. Seventeen men died that night.

Simonstown schoolteacher Patti Price was horrified when she read the news. She began a media campaign and appealed to the president of the Society of Master Mariners. As a direct result of her efforts, the South African Inshore Rescue Service was founded in August 1966 (renamed the National Sea Rescue Institute in 1967). Today, the NSRI has 35 rescue bases and over 1 000 volunteers.

When Johan Booysen hears that the new Provincial Police Chief takes backhanders from a Durban businessman, he decides to give her the benefit of the doubt. But the evidence becomes impossible to ignore and he soon gets dragged down the corridors of power and politics into a web of intrigue, deceit and betrayal that, at times, he has trouble making sense of.

Only when he is arrested, handcuffed and tossed into a cell does Booysen realise just how ruthless those opposed to him are – an opposition he comes to call the ‘cabal’ – and whom he believes have more blood on their hands than the so-called Cato Manor Death Squad with which he is closely associated.

Blood On Their Hands traces Johan Booysen’s life and career – from patrolling the streets of Amanzimtoti in the 1970s to his rise in 2010 to major general and head of KZN’s Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation unit, the Hawks. But his tenure is short-lived. When Booysen decides to take on those so determined to be rid of him, each legal battle he wins is met by hostility and further efforts to shut him out of the of the criminal justice system. But capitulating is not in his DNA…

When Bridget Hilton-Barber got on a train to Grahamstown in 1982 to study journalism at Rhodes University, she had no idea of the brutal drama that would unfold.

A rebellious young woman, she became politically involved in anti-apartheid organisations and was caught up in the massive resistance and repression sweeping the Eastern Cape at the time. She ended up spending three months in detention without trial, and after her release discovered she had been betrayed by one of her best friends, Olivia Forsyth, who was a spy for the South African security police.

Thirty years later, a horrific flashback triggers Bridget’s journey back to the Eastern Cape to see if she can forgive her betrayer and finally let go of the extraordinary violence she encountered in the final days of apartheid. This is her powerful story.

"Dié seun is vir groot dinge bestem . . ."

Só het sy afrigters by Boland Landbou sedert sy hoërskooldae geglo. Toe hy op die bloedjong ouderdom van 19 die Curriebeker vir die Blou Bulle verower én die skopkoning Naas Botha se eindstrydpunterekord verbeter, het dit gelyk of sy pad na roem en rykdom geplavei was. Maar toe begin die dobbelstene verkeerd val vir die liefling van Loftus.

Harsingskudding, Kamp Staaldraad, beserings en toé ’n allesverterende pilverslawing het hom laat steier. Sy sprokies-huwelik is verwoes en sy beroepslewe en geldsake is in ’n warboel gelaat . . .

Dié boek onthul staaltjies oor sy rugbydae maar ook vriende en vertrouelinge se vergeefse pogings om Derick uit die kloue van verslawing los te wikkel.

Dit is ’n diep menslike verhaal wat wys hoe dun die lyn tussen sukses en mislukking is en hoe maklik selfs die grootste helde tot op hul knieë gedwing kan word.

Love and Fury is the compelling and intimate account of the life, loves and furies of Margie Orford. In this brave memoir, the renowned South African crime writer divulges some of the harrowing experiences that have shaped her life and influenced her writing.

Through sexual assault, divorce, depression and personal loss, Orford illuminates the trauma she has navigated. Tender and courageous chapters vividly recall memories of what she has been through as a woman, mother, wife, feminist and ambitious writer.

Love and Fury shows why trauma in our past can have such an enduring and debilitating effect on women’s lives. It also unpacks the healing power of love, creativity, courage and self-reflection, ultimately offering a profound message of hope and joy for any woman who has ever questioned themselves, their trauma and who they are in the world.

This book is every woman’s love and fury.

A brand new edition of Martinique Stilwell’s beloved memoir, Thinking Up a Hurricane.

In the spring of 1977, Frank Stilwell launched Vingila, 17 tons of welded together 11-millimeter steel plates. Never one to be daunted by a challenge or resisted in any way, he took his nine-year-old twins Robert and Martinique out of school, persuaded his wife Maureen that they would all learn to sail and cope with life on the open seas as they went, and prepared to follow his dream of circumnavigating the world.

In this unique coming-of-age memoir, Martinique Stilwell’s recounting of her true-life gypsy childhood is poignant, funny and heartbreaking. With the wisdom and innocence of a child’s point of view, it is a powerful and tender story of physical and emotional adversity, of family dysfunction and the ties that bind, and of the shackles and exhilarating freedom of growing up different.

In 2012 verdwyn Binnelanders se geliefde Elise Kruger sonder waarskuwing van kykers se televisieskerms af. Lindie Stander, wat die rol van die vermaaklike Elise vertolk, was op die kruin van haar loopbaan toe sy in ’n bloedbevlekte bed in ’n staatshospitaal wakker word. Hier het sy besef dat sy haar rol en haar lewe soos sy dit ken, kwyt is.

Lindie Stander: Agter my glimlag is die eerlike ervaring van dit wat kykers nie op skerm sien nie: die verpletterende verlies van haar pa, haar worsteling met dwelmmisbruik en rehabilitasie, ’n lewe met depressie en ’n gewonde vrou se genadelose soeke na ’n liefde wat kan heelmaak.

In haar bekende, deernisvolle stem vertel Lindie haar hartverskeurende, maar hoopvolle verhaal soos net sy kan: sonder skroom en met ’n goeie skeut humor.

On 10 June 1980, during a seemingly endless day of bloody fighting, 13 men of the South African Defence Force died and several more were wounded after 61 Mechanised Infantry Battalion Group attacked a vast complex of Swapo military bases in Angola.

During Operation Sceptic second lieutenant Paul Louw led his platoon in four Ratel infantry fighting vehicles to a battleground called Smokeshell. In the ensuing chaos of that day 12 national servicemen of his platoon of 44 were killed and he himself was wounded. In a separate incident during the fighting his company second-in-command was also slain. One of his troops, 18-year-old HP Ferreira, was shot through the pelvis by a 14,5 mm anti-aircraft round and also hit by AK-47 bullets.

Louw spent the night drenched in the blood and guts of his men, hunkered down with a handful of other survivors in a Ratel destroyed by an RPG 7 rocket, isolated from the rest of the South African attack force.

Blood Brothers records the dramatic events that took place in Angola that day, in the words of the survivors of the battle. It investigates the human cost of war after the last shots have been fired and follows the veterans as they return to the battleground four decades later in search of peace.

Hot Water is an intimate and daring look into the life of a young African woman from the Cape Flats with a chronic illness. The book investigates how endometriosis affects the way young woman function and navigate the world, and how this becomes especially complicated for those who are underprivileged and reliant on the public sector’s healthcare system.

In Hot Water Nadine Dirks reveals the unique issues of racism, sexism, classism, fatphobia and slut-shaming that African women experience within the context of healthcare facilities, and how especially jarring it is when the stigma comes from medical staff who one expects to have the patient’s care as their primary concern. All of this has enraged Dirks and catapulted her into becoming a sexual reproductive health and rights advocate.

Hot Water tells the story of how people with chronic illness are treated daily, at school, university and socially for being differently abled; how people are regarded as lazy, aggressive, disappointing, lacking, among multiple other things for being unwell in comparison to their healthy counterparts.

One cannot look at seeking adequate healthcare as a young, black, underprivileged woman on the Cape Flats without experiencing racism in the most blatant of ways. Even with guidelines in place, the book shows that it is next to impossible to invoke those rights even if you are aware of them for fear of being victimised and excluded from the system.